We Are All Armenian by Aram Mrjoian

We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora, is available for pre-order now through University of Texas Press. Edited by Aram Mrjoian, this groundbreaking collection of personal essays explores the multilayered realities of life in the Armenian diaspora.

From the publisher: We Are All Armenian brings together established and emerging Armenian authors to reflect on the complications of Armenian ethnic identity today. These personal essays elevate diasporic voices that have been historically silenced inside and outside of their communities, including queer, multiracial, and multiethnic writers. The eighteen contributors to this contemporary anthology explore issues of displacement, assimilation, inheritance, and broader definitions of home. Through engaging creative nonfiction, many of them question what it is to be Armenian enough inside an often unacknowledged community.

“Each of these extraordinary essays is a life altered by a century-old genocide, illuminating not only the recognizable aspects of political violence but its hidden, cruel subtleties—how it always lingers, but lingers differently. As heavy and dazzling as a geode.” — Patrick Nathan

“The greatest strength of We Are All Armenian is the diversity of its writers. The presence of multiracial Armenian, queer Armenian, and polyamorous Armenian voices alongside one another adds a bold richness that goes beyond simply being novel. Not only are these stories that many readers may have never heard before, but they also beautifully subvert preconceived notions about who and what constitutes the Armenian diaspora. The writers, who understand profoundly what it means to have one’s history erased or denied, thus ensure that other types of erasure are both confronted and avoided.” — Leila Emery

Aram Mrjoian is a writer, editor, critic, and educator whose writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Guardian, Runner’s World, Catapult, West Branch, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Boulevard, Joyland, Longreads, and many other publications. He is an editor-at-large at the Chicago Review of Books, an associate fiction editor at Guernica, and a 2022 Creative Armenia–AGBU Fellow.

Anthology contributors include Liana Aghajanian, Naira Kuzmich, Sophia Armen, Kohar Avakian, Nancy Kricorian, Olivia Katrandjian, Chris McCormick, Nancy Agabian, Chris Bohjalian, Aline Ohanesian, Raffi Joe Wartanian, Anna Gazmarian, J. P. Der Boghossian, Raffy Boudjikanian, Hrag Vartanian, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, Carene Rose Mekertichyan, and Scout Tufankjian.

We Are All Armenian will be published by the University of Texas Press on March 14, 2023. Click here to purchase it now by applying the discount code “UTXM25” during checkout to receive 25% off and free shipping. You can also find it on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Get a chance to meet Mrjoian in New York City on April 3, 2023 at our monthly reading series, Literary Lights.